A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

Eight petty criminals are assigned to do community service by cleaning up a filthy and dilapidated abandoned hotel. Unfortunately, said hotel proves to be the stalking grounds of vicious reclusive psychopath Jacob Goodnight (enormous professional wrestler Kane).Okay, the premise alone is pretty damn silly and preposterous, what with a small handful of folks selected to clean up in a mere three days (!) a massive dingy hotel with multiple floors which somehow still has electricity and running water despite having been ravaged in the past by a fire. Then there's the way director Gregory Dark, a fellow whose previous credits include hardcore porn, 90's soft-core erotic thrillers, and music videos for people like Britney Spears, Vitamin C, and Mandy Moore, goes gloriously whole hog on the flashy pyrotechnics replete with rapid-fire editing, shadowy lighting, black and white freeze frames complete with text explaining the specific offenses of each criminal, sepia-tinged flashbacks, and hyperactive camera-work. Dan Madigan's leave-no-cliché unturned script likewise hits the hilariously cornball spot with jaw-dropping bluntness: Jacob naturally turns out to be the dangerously toxic product of childhood abuse and a strict religious upbringing while the obnoxious victims clearly mark themselves for doom by smoking weed and making out.The acceptable acting by the competent cast holds the picture together: Rachael Taylor as snooty rich bitch Zoe, Christina Vidal as the sassy Christine, Michael J. Pagan as the smooth Tye, Luke Pegler as swaggering thug Michael, Samantha Noble as the hapless Kira, Craig Horner as the nerdy Craig, Penny McNamee as sensitive vegan Melissa, and Steve Vidler as rugged ex-cop Williams. With his bald head, evil leer, and hulking physique, Kane makes for a genuinely fearsome and intimidating horror fiend. The moments of gory and sadistic brutality pack a savage punch, with plenty of ugly eyeball violence and a memorably nasty cellphone-shoved-down-the-throat gag. Ben Nott's grayish cinematography provides an appropriately gloomy'n'grungy look. Fun slasher schlock.

A small minority of horror films have left me speechless. This is one of those. One word to describe it, is limited, and chiefly I'm talking about the low use of violence, like a car running low on fuel. When seeing the poster for this flick, our killer star, obviously involved in wrestling, I expected this film to much gorier. Surprisingly the film is made by a guy, who's made a lot of b sex pics, although responsible that well made porn docu, Fallen Angels. This film has a short sheeted feel. Suspense is low, as really waiting for something to happen, while the premise and back story is quite good. Starring a few ocker stars, including the sexy Rachel Taylor, in her earlier acting stage. She's part of a group of lock up juveniles who take an excursion to an abandoned hotel to clean it up, sort of like doing community service, where Taylor's rebellious character, who gives the film some sexy spark, has other things in mind. What's also been abandoned in this hotel is a caged bald headed psycho, nasty serial killer Jacob, who's thought to be dead, where one of the cops behind this case, will see to it, he succeeds this time. When the violence happens, it happens: be appreciative. The performances are good, especially from an older Tiffany Lamb (remember her) as the officer in charge of the girl juvies, while Vidler (of course, good) is in in charge of the juvie boys. Kane, whatever mainly has to grunt and yell, and KILL. The film, though not a bad one, just has a short sheeted feel about it. It could of been better, definitely much, where really we're left with is sadly a forgettable horror, (not as forgettable as it's lead) where it's a fifty fifty decision, if deciding to having a second viewing.

Sent to an abandoned hotel to clean it up, a group of juvenile delinquents finds that the hotel is home to a deranged, psychopathic killer and is stalking them for intruding upon his home, forcing them to find a way to get out alive.This here is an above-average slasher of the time-period. The fact that the setting is almost near-perfect is one positive aspect, as this hotel looks suitably disgusting, slimy and completely unlivable with the thick layer of dirt covering every single piece of furniture. The sequences where they're cleaning up the hotel in the beginning are spectacular, and the completely clever touch of having the scenes play out with buzzing flies in the background, which is a realistic touch, is greatly appreciated at building a wonderful aura around this. That also works for the killer here, who is one of the most impressive ones around as he's bulky enough to be a threat, and the scenes where he towers over everyone due to his height advantage is another big factor in making him someone to fear. The killing method doesn't hurt either, and leads to one of the film's biggest pluses in its gore and kills. The hook-on-a-chain is used as the main one and is hooked through the legs, arms and shoulder, and there's also an ax to hack off arms, a cell-phone is forcibly swallowed, a steel pipe embedded in the eye, a body breaking through a set of glass during a fall from great heights, as well as the center-piece of seeing a slew of victims with eyes ripped out. The last half of the film, based on sequences of the killer chasing them around the upper areas of the hotel is a pure blast, containing a series of suspenseful stalking scenes mixed in nicely with great action that includes the final manner of disposing of the killer and the final fights. The last little bit that works is the single most clever idea in the whole film, the system which lets the killer know where everyone is and can get to them, which fixes a major problem in the genre and is a clue to his creativity and inventiveness. These here make the film really enjoyable, as there's not a whole lot of flaws in this one. The worst is the fact that there's a lot of really terrible camera angles or technical decisions which make it look all the worse, from the washed-out look that becomes a pain every time, sequences where the camera is thrust right under their heads and the aggravating and incredibly irritating flash-cuts that appear all the time. The last flaw in the film is the fact that there's a back-story given for the psycho change, but it's a tired old cliché that doesn't make the killer all the more frightening and makes no sense as to how it can lead to such a change in personality. Thankfully, it's not nearly enough to rid this one from its positives which far outweigh the flaws.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Brief Nudity and drug use.

While investigating a call in an abandoned house, Frank Williams finds a woman brutally blinded, but is attacked by a huge psychopath with an axe. Frank shoots the criminal in the head, but has a severed arm. Four years later, Frank is relocated, working as a guard in the County Detention Centre. He goes with some convicts to the Blackwell Hotel, an abandoned place since a fire burnt the last two floors, with the purpose of cleaning it, preparing it as a shelter for homeless; in return, the criminals will have their sentences reduced. During the night, inmate Kira is kidnapped by the deranged killer that collects the eyes of his victims, while the rest of the group are stalked...First off, if you are expecting anything other than a generic stalk and slash movie, you're not going to get it here. But if you want a fun movie, with some inventive kills and a neat villain, you're not going to get that either.What you get is a basic rehash of Friday the thirteenth, albeit without the mothers revenge part, and a villain you feel very little sympathy for, and come to think of it, anyone you feel sympathy for......maybe the rat in a couple of scenes.The characters are a who's who of stereotypes, and you can more or less guess which ones will die, and which ones will survive.It has a very basic feel to it. It's not scary enough to be proper horror, nor is it over the top enough to be exploitation.It just happens, and then finishes, without really doing anything to entertain.Boring really.